The Drake Equation

The Drake equation is used to estimate things, but has no real scientific significance as far as proving any things because the variables involved themselves are unknown. The Drake equation is as follows.

N=N*fp any fl fi fc fL

Where and is the number of stars in the Milky Way galaxy; fp is the fraction with planets; any is the number of planets per star capable of supporting life; fl is the fraction of planets where life evolves; fi is the fraction where intelligent life evolves; and fc is the fraction that communicates; and fL is the fraction of the planet’s life during which the communicating civilizations live.

What it allows people to do is say IF, we knew there was and amount of stars, and IF somehow, we knew fL, then there is this and this chance of life. The problem is while some of the variables we can reasonably estimate, others could vary so greatly, we could arrive at conclusions of saying there is a .0000000000000000000000000001% chance of life with some of our guesses, or .001 with other guesses.

This isn’t science in the traditional way of having a scientific method, and a hypothesis and testing it. See article Aliens Cause Global Warming. Explains it pretty well.

http://michaelcrichton.com/speech-alienscauseglobalwarming.html